I am interested in early modern history, especailly the history of the family, history and literature, and the social and cultural history of the English Bible.

I have broad research interests and will be delighted to discuss possible doctoral work with students interested in British social and cultural history c. 1500-1800, with particular reference to -

• Culture and society in early modern England (Hist290)

I am interested in social relations and in their cultural and textual representations, with particular reference to the history of the family, language and texts, and religious culture in England c. 1500-1800. My recentwork has focused on the ways in which concepts of social description were coined in the English Bible and their broader intellectual and social resonance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. My book entitled The social universe of the English Bible: scripture, society and culture in early modern England has been published by Cambridge University Press in 2010 and has been shortlisted for the Longman History Today Book of the Year award.

My previous long-term project has centred on concepts of the family in the eighteenth century, and led to the publication of Family and friends in eighteenth-century England: household, kinship, and patronage (Cambridge 2001, paperback 2007). I am also interested in the history of reading and have co-edited a book on the subject: The practice and representation of reading in England (Cambridge 1996, paperback 2007).

My current research turns once more to the history of the family, as well as to community relations with particular reference to gender. However, now I am interested especially in comparative studies and in investigations of long-term change. A special issue of Continuity and Change, dedicated to Kinship in Britain and beyond, 500-2000, which I co-edited, and to which I also contributed (following workshop and network research), has been published in 2010. At the same time, I am also developing a new comparative project on biblical translation in early modern England and Europe.